The cradle of the kingdom: Count Henry's castle and the burgo his Frankish settlers built below it.
The royal collegiate church of Santa Maria da Oliveira stands in the town. The infanta Teresa married Alfonso IX here on 15 February 1191.
Who holds it
- Name
- Sancho I (the crown); the alcaide on 1 January 1200 is not pinned
- Title
- Royal town under the king's alcaide or tenente
- Confidence
- medium
Lord in 1200
The crown (the old comital castle); the alcaide on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
Overlord
Sancho I of Portugal
What the town holds
- The castle and the burgo
How things stand that morning
Royal town.
Wealth
Crafts and trade of the burgo.
Military
The old castle. No figures.
Fuero
Foral of Count Henry and Countess Teresa, dated 1095-1096 by Rui de Azevedo; confirmed by Afonso Henriques in 1128.
Council
The burgo of merchants and craftsmen below the castle, with its own council under the foral.
Communities
Frankish burgesses settled by Count Henry; the canons of the royal collegiate church of Santa Maria da Oliveira.
Fairs and markets
A market; no chartered fair pinned.
Militia
Burgesses owe service under the foral. No figures.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The foral from José Marques's edition; the rest standard.
On the map: Small termo; the surrounding Terra de Guimarães was a tenência not pinned for 1200.
Primary sources for Portugal
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
- Chronicle of the World (Lucas of Tuy), Lucas de Tuy (1236, for Queen Berenguela). The Leonese counterpart to Rodrigo, written at San Isidoro for Berenguela. Read online
- Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
- Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
- The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
- The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
- History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
- The Gift of the Imamate, Ibn Sahib al-Sala (Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Baji) (late twelfth century; the surviving part covers 1159 to 1173). The only Almohad court chronicle written from inside the administration, by a chancery secretary who travelled with the caliphs Abd al-Mu'min and Abu Yaqub Yusuf.
5 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.
Sources and studies
- José Marques, the foral of Guimarães (Revista de Guimarães 106, 1996)
- Medieval Lands: Portugal, kings (Charles Cawley, FMG)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.